Student store pops up in Brighton

Re:So store, Southampton Solent University’s award-winning student-led store, is ‘popping up’ in Brighton for a limited time this April, before heading to the capital.

Packed with products from students within the University’s School of Art, Design and Fashion – including clothes, accessories, jewellery, homeware, illustrated prints and photography – Re:So will operate out of a temporary retail space at Church Street BN1 1UD from 4-10 April, 10am-6pm.

“The aim is to help students promote their work on a national scale,” says Lecturer and Re:So founder, Lisa Mann.

“As well as understanding how to run a pop-up store and adjust visual merchandising and promotional activity for a temporary retail space, this initiative also teaches students how to engage with an audience and provide excellent customer experience.”

In addition to selling student products, the store will also be holding a variety of events for visitors to enjoy – including a bloggers bloc party, live art activities and a hair braiding station.

“This is a unique opportunity for our students and graduates to have their work showcased and sold to a national audience. No other university offers this opportunity on this scale,” says Lisa.

The ‘store-on-tour’ was a huge hit at the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham last December and following its Brighton debut it will spend a week in Top Shop, Oxford Circus in June.

Launched in 2012, Re:So is the first fully student-operated retail initiative in a UK shopping centre. For those bored with the high street, it sells a unique mix of fashion, accessories, publications, furniture and art produced by the University’s creative students and graduates. Re:So won a Higher Education National Enterprise Educator award at the 2015 National Enterprise Education Educator Awards (NEEA).